


Just Breathe

by Heavenli24



Category: Veronica Mars (Movie 2014), Veronica Mars (TV), Veronica Mars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, LV AU WEEK
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-10
Updated: 2019-03-10
Packaged: 2019-11-15 01:17:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18063803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heavenli24/pseuds/Heavenli24
Summary: There just aren't any suitable pillars on an aircraft carrierLoVe AU Week 2019. Day 3: Prosthetic Love by Typhoon (5th-favorite moment - Pillar sex!)





	Just Breathe

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to Irma66 for the extremely quick beta on this one :).

Logan whistles a jaunty tune as he enters the squadron ready room on the carrier. He makes his way over to the small kitchen in the corner and pours himself a mug of coffee. Grabbing a cereal bar from the cupboard, he carries the mug over to the flight planning table and joins the rest of his squadron.

"What time do you call this, Mouth?" Mace snaps in irritation.

Logan grins. "I call it eleven-oh-one Zulu, Mace. Why, what time is it where you are?"

Mace narrows her eyes at him. "Hack was eleven hundred hours, Mouth. You're late."

"Oh, please." He scoffs. "By one minute."

She grits her teeth, stepping up to him and squaring her shoulders, eyes glinting with frustration. "You talk to the OC like that, Mouth?"

He smirks, closing the gap. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"Okay, okay. That's enough." Hawk steps between them, holding up his hands to keep them apart. "There'll be plenty of time for you two to fight this out later. Right now, we have a mission to plan."

Logan narrows his eyes at Mace, before grinding out. "Fine."

Hawk looks to Mace. "Mace?"

"Fine." She sneers, before turning on her heel and returning to her spot at the planning table.

Logan's smirk returns as he takes his place too, and he's about to say something more when Hawk shoots him a warning glare and a firm shake of his head, and he's forced to leave it.

Mace launches into the mission plan, and Logan can't help but observe her as she quickly and efficiently outlines the day's assigned flying waves, the in-air formations they'll be flying and their mission objectives. It's not that he doesn't like Mace, exactly—she's a good pilot and a solid member of the team—it's just that she seems to have a chip on her shoulder about the fact that she's the only female pilot on the squadron. It's like she thinks she has to prove herself to the guys all the time, to show she's just as tough, if not tougher than them… and she seems to think the way to do that is through cutting remarks and no-nonsense briefings.

He supposes her worries are not entirely unfounded; after all, she's a petite, blonde woman doing what is traditionally considered a man's job, but it's not like she needs to work so hard at proving herself. She already has the respect of her colleagues, including Logan. He just likes to wind her up sometimes, partly because it's fun, but also because ribbing and teasing each other is what Naval aviators do. She's made it clear she doesn't want to be treated any differently because she's a woman, so he's treating her exactly as he would a male pilot.

Or so he tells himself.

"Mouth, you're with me on this one," Mace's voice pulls him from his thoughts and he looks down to see her indicating to two of the jets on the formation diagram. "Hawk and Doc will lift first and head out to these coordinates, with Ace and Gunner following behind. Then you and I will lift and head out this way."

"Got it." He nods, taking a sip of his coffee.

"Okay." She nods decisively. "You all have your objectives?"

There's a chorus of 'affirmative's and she gives a small smile of satisfaction.

"We'll reconvene on the flight deck at thirteen-hundred Zulu," she says, shooting Logan a look before adding, " _Exactly_."

"Affirmative," he says, lifting a hand to his temple in a sharp salute, " _Boss_."

Mace rolls her eyes at him before turning and making her way over to the bank of computers across the room.

"Dude, you gotta stop baiting her." Hawk comes to stand beside him.

"What? It's not my fault she keeps retaliating."

"Oh, geez." Hawk shakes his head as he plants his hand on Logan's shoulder. "You know, if fraternisation wasn't strictly prohibited on board, I'd tell you both to fuck already and get it out of your systems."

Logan startles at that, making a face as he shoves his squadron-mate. "Ew, dude. Come on."

"What, you're telling me you wouldn't tap that?"

"Whether I would or not is irrelevant." Logan turns to Hawk, eyes narrowed. "This is exactly why she thinks she has something to prove. She's not a piece of meat, man. Have some respect."

Shooting Hawk a withering glare, he drains the last of his coffee and strides back over to the kitchen, rinsing the mug and placing it on the draining board. Turning back to face the room, his eyes land on Mace, sitting at the computer, frowning at something on the screen.

He makes his way over to her and rests his elbow on one of the monitors. "All good?"

"Yeah." She nods, checking something on the clipboard in her hand, before glancing up at him. "Did you need something?"

He shakes his head. "No. Just checking in. Anything you need me to do?"

"Actually, yes." She stands, handing him the clipboard. "Can you finish inputting the mission details?"

"Sure." He takes it from her and settles into the tall chair she's just vacated.

She doesn't say anything more, just heads for the ready room door and slips through, leaving Logan staring after her.

* * *

At thirteen-hundred hours  _exactly_ , Logan steps out onto the flight deck, adjusting his G-suit as he joins his fellow pilots. The engineers are still carrying out their final ground checks on the six aircraft they'll be taking up today, so Mace calls them into a huddle to go over some final details while they wait.

Ten minutes later, the jets are ready and Logan has situated himself in the cockpit of his jet. Tugging on his helmet, he adjusts the headset and checks the comms link with Mace is working. As planned, Hawk and Doc lift first, their jets ascending quickly and disappearing off to the east, then Ace and Gunner take off next, first veering off to the south, and then circling around to follow Hawk and Doc east.

Finally, it's his and Mace's turn. He manoeuvres his jet into position, ready for the catapult to shoot him into the sky, and within seconds, he's hurtling along the flight deck, rapidly gaining speed before his wheels leave the tarmac and he's airborne. He circles out to the west, then when he's clear of the carrier, he turns north, ascending up into the clouds and waiting for Mace to join him.

* * *

Logan feels shell-shocked as he lands his jet back on the carrier, catching the third wire by the skin of his teeth and coming to a harsh stop. As soon as he's cleared to get out of the plane, he lifts the canopy and jumps out of the cockpit, practically running down the steps and quickly crossing the flight deck. Mace is already standing on the tarmac surrounded by ground crew, having landed before him after taking three attempts to catch the wire.

Logan pulls off his helmet as he approaches her, slipping his hand around her elbow as he asks in a breathless rush, "Are you okay?"

She looks up at him, her face pale and taut, as she nods absently. Her eyes are vacant though, and Logan can see she's struggling to stay calm, so he tugs on her arm, guiding her across the deck.

"Come with me."

She doesn't protest… doesn't say anything at all, actually… which is yet another clue that something is seriously wrong. He leads her inside the ship and along a winding maze of corridors, until he reaches a familiar door. Pulling it open, he ushers her inside.

Closing the heavy metal door behind them, he turns to find her standing forlornly in the small space, arms wrapped around herself.

"Hey," he murmurs, stepping in front of her and letting his hands rest on her arms, just above her elbows. "You're okay now."

She shakes her head helplessly. "God, I don't… I don't know what happened."

"It's okay, you're safe."

"Fuck, Mouth… I…"

She stops, her shoulders hunching as her breathing becomes laboured and she starts gasping for air.

_Shit, she's having a panic attack._

"Just breathe, okay?" he tells her, clasping her hands in his and forcing her to look into his eyes. "Just breathe."

"I—I can't," she manages, voice breathless as she averts her gaze. "My chest… tight."

"You can," he assures her. "You just need to breathe."

She shakes her head. "No, I—"

"Look at me, Veronica," he instructs firmly, nodding when she lifts her gaze back to his again. "Now breathe. That's it; slow and steady, nice and calm. You got this."

She nods, finally following his instructions, until her body relaxes and her breathing begins to return to normal.

"There you go." Logan gives her an encouraging smile. "You're okay now."

Silence falls in the small supply room as Veronica recovers from the panic attack, Logan still gripping her hands in his, watching her with concern.

"God… I'm sorry," she mutters eventually, avoiding his eyes now. "I don't know what… I'm sorry."

"Don't." He shakes his head. "It was a panic attack. You have nothing to apologise for."

She nods, but takes a step back, extracting her hands from his as she looks around at their surroundings.

"Where are we?"

"Oh, uh… one of the supply rooms," he says. "I come here sometimes when I need space…to, you know, deal with shit on my own."

"Right." She nods absently.

"Mace," Logan starts hesitantly. "What happened out there?"

She frowns. "You know what happened, you were there."

"I was, but I only know what _I_  experienced," he says. "Something must've spooked you to cause this."

She shakes her head, wrapping her arms around herself again as she takes a seat on a small wooden trunk along the wall.

"It was stupid," she mutters. "It shouldn't have happened."

"Hey." He takes a seat beside her. "It's not stupid. If it affected your flying, then it's  _absolutely_  not stupid."

She sighs.

"I had this friend—best friend, really—during flight training." She smiles slightly, before pressing her lips together in a grim line. "We met on the first day of OCS and were pretty much inseparable until… uh, until our first deployment. We were out flying a mission together, right around this part of the world, actually. It was all going smoothly, the target had been acquired, we'd deployed the missiles… we were almost ready to head back to the carrier, and then out of nowhere…"

She trails off then, looking down at her hands in her lap. They're shaking. Logan reaches over and places his palm over them, stilling their movement.

"What happened?" he asked softly.

"He was shot down," she manages eventually. "Right in front of me. One minute his jet was right beside me, and the next, he was gone. Just like that."

Logan exhales in a whoosh of air. "Shit. Mace. I'm sorry."

"It's been a couple years," she says. "I thought I was over it. But then, there we were today, same part of the world, similar mission briefing… and it all came flooding back."

"I'm not surprised." Logan shakes his head. "Why didn't you say anything? We could have changed the formation, or let someone else take on this mission."

She shakes her head. "I couldn't. I needed to do it. I needed to lead this one."

Logan gives a sigh, running his free hand through his hair. "Look, Mace, I know you think you have to be strong, that you have to prove yourself to us, but you don't. You really don't."

"No." She shakes her head quickly. "That's not what—"

"I'm serious." He cuts her off. "You don't need to prove anything to anyone. You have the respect of the entire squadron."

She raises her eyebrows, turning her head towards him. "Including you?"

Logan nods. "Including me."

She exhales heavily. "Wow…never thought I'd hear that from  _your_  mouth."

"I know I've been an ass to you," he admits. "And I apologise for that. But, honestly, I think you're a fucking kickass pilot, Veronica."

"Right," she mutters sceptically. "Sure you do."

"I mean it," he insists. "But I guess I haven't let you see that. I really thought I was treating you the same as I would any other pilot, but maybe I went a bit overboard."

"Ya think?" Her words are laced with sarcasm.

"I'm sorry."

Veronica looks down at their hands for a moment, before gently extracting one of hers and placing it over his, squeezing lightly.

"Thank you," she says sincerely. "Not just for apologising, but for talking me down."

Logan just nods, very much aware of her warm fingers wrapped around his. They lock eyes for a moment, before she stands and really takes in their surroundings.

She raises an eyebrow at him. "You really come here to be alone?"

"Sometimes." He shrugs. "It's kind of peaceful, you know?"

She wrinkles her nose, looking around at the dark, dank space. "I guess."

"It is," he assures her. "It's nice to escape for a while."

"I dunno, it's kind of claustrophobic…" She glances around again. "I bet no one could even hear you scream in here."

"No, I guess not…"

She turns to him with a wicked glint in her eye then, and dread fills his belly.

"What?"

"You know," she says smoothly, "if no one can hear anything, maybe we  _should_  just get it over with and fuck already, fraternisation be damned."

Logan's eyes widen in shock. "Shit, you  _heard_  that?"

"Uh, huh." She nods, a small smile tugging at her lips. "I also heard you defending my honour. So, thank you for that."

"Yeah, well." Logan shrugs self-consciously, looking down at his hands.

"So how about it?"

"Huh?" His head shoots up then, to find her looking at him with a coy sort-of expression. "How about what?"

"You wanna fuck against this pillar?" She grins, bobbing her eyebrows suggestively as she runs her finger down over the metal.

Logan frowns. "Why would I wanna fuck against a dirty, metal pillar?"

"Dunno." She shrugs. "Saw it in a movie once, thought it looked sexy."

"Right. Okay."

"Of course," she murmurs thoughtfully, "the pillar was in someone's house, and it was all romantic, with this song by Typhoon playing in the background."

Logan can't suppress a smile now, as he gets up from the trunk and comes to stand in front of her.

"Well, as, uh, romantic as  _that_  pillar sex sounds, there is no way I'm fucking you against  _this_  particular pillar. Don't know what we might catch. Besides, if we got caught doing it, we'd be thrown off the ship."

"Hmm," she contemplates this for a moment. "Well, that is a good point. Maybe another time, then."

"Yeah, maybe." Logan smiles, before changing the subject. "If you're fully recovered, we should get out of here. We have a debrief to get to, and everyone's probably wondering where we are."

"Okay."

She crosses the small room and reaches for the handle of the heavy metal door. Pausing for a moment, she turns back to him.

"Hey, Mouth?"

"Yeah, Mace?"

"Truce?"

"Truce." He nods, his smile widening.

She returns the smile. "Okay, then."

"And, hey," he adds, just as she starts pulling the door open, "if you ever find yourself living somewhere with a pillar that needs christening, you know where to find me."


End file.
